Nanometer-sized particles have a wide variety of applications including the areas of magnetic materials, heterogeneous catalysts, toner compositions, and ceramics. Typical techniques to synthesize these particles include sol-gel processing and emulsions.
Emulsions present a unique method to prepare nanometer-sized particles. Stable emulsions comprise a continuous phase and a discontinuous phase which are immiscible, where isolation of the discontinuous phase is accomplished by the use of surfactants. The discontinuous phase constitutes a substantially spherical regime which can potentially serve to control particle size. This phase is easily subjected to disruption, however, due to surface tension that exists between the immiscible phases. Thus, there exists a need for methods to obtain unique emulsion compositions that enhance stability of isolated phases and that yield particles having a desired size and morphology.